This invention relates to a welding and/or cutting machine for use on a workpiece formed by a pair of metal sheets in face to face contact.
In a fusion reactor of a particular design, duct ports are provided. The ports comprise openings formed in pairs of metal sheets in face to face contact, with lip-welds securing the adjacent edges of the sheets.
After the reactor has been in use, any cutting away of existing weld material, and then subsequently lip-welding replacement sheets, has to be done at present by remote controlled machines. One machine is used to remove weld material and another to perform the necessary re-welding.
The present invention not only provides a single machine capable of performing both cutting and welding operations; it also provides a machine capable of negotiating curvatures of small radius, (say 60 mm), with the weld lips lying either in a common plane, or on a cylindrical or conical surface of small radius of curvature, (say 100 mm).